Things You Don't Want Your Cab Driver To Say, Volume I

I took a cab on Monday. When I buckled up, the driver buckled up, too, and said, "Thanks for buckling up. It reminded me I should buckle up, too. I've been in two crashes where I didn't buckle up, and both times my head got smashed against the window, but I still don't remember to buckle up."

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3 Comments

Yes, what Mitch said -- my thoughts exactly! It would have been funny if you'd then put on a crash helmet, tho probably one wasn't handy. The taxi driver's comments actually could encourage the passenger to unbuckle ... and get the heck out of the cab. What do you think it is, the feeling of misguided serenity that makes passengers so seldom buckle up in cabs? I've neglected it many times.

About five years ago New York City cabs played an audio message at the beginning of a fare encouraging riders to buckle up. Celebrities from Yankees players to Broadway actors to Elmo (especially grating) delivered the message. Most were innocuous, but most were like fingernails on a chalkboard. Anyway, the Taxi Commission decided to take a poll to determine how effective the messages were in getting people to use seatbelts in cabs, and surprisingly discovered that rates had gone down. New Yorkers found the messages so annoying that they actually stopped buckling up as a small f*** you to the Taxi Commission. Shortly after the poll was published, all audio messages were removed from the cabs.